In a long term evolution advanced (Long Term Evolution Advanced, LTE-A for short) system, uplink physical channels include: physical uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH for short) and physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH for short). In general, uplink control signaling is transmitted over a PUCCH, and types of uplink control signaling mainly include: channel quality indicator (Channel Quality Indicator, CQI for short) signaling, acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (Acknowledged/non-acknowledged, ACK/NACK for short) message, and scheduling request indication message.
In an LTE/LTE-A system, when uplink control signaling is transmitted over a PUCCH, different types of control signaling are transmitted in different formats (or carriers), such as PUCCH format 1/1a/1b, format (format) 2/2a/2b, and format (format) 3. Each PUCCH format is formed by two timeslots. Each timeslot (slot) occupies a physical resource block (Physical Resource Block, PRB for short) defined by LTE/LTE-A. From the time perspective, a PRB includes seven or six single-carrier frequency division multiple access (Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access, SC-FDMA for short) symbols; from the frequency perspective, a PRB occupies 12 consecutive subcarriers defined by LTE/LTE-A. A specific PUCCH format is intended for transmitting certain uplink control signaling, and, for simplicity, a PUCCH format is herein called a PUCCH. One PRB can accommodate multiple PUCCHs of the same PUCCH format, and different PUCCHs are distinguished by different sequences. Generally, different PUCCH formats are not distinguishable from each other within one PRB.
It is assumed that one PRB can accommodate up to D PUCCHs of a specific format, which are distinguished from each other by D different sequences. In the prior art, if a transmitting terminal has only one transmitting antenna and each terminal needs to transmit a different PUCCH, one PRB can support up to D transmitting terminals to transmit uplink control signaling simultaneously. In the prior art, if a transmitting terminal has two transmitting antennas, where each antenna of each terminal needs to transmit a different PUCCH, that is, each transmitting terminal requires two PUCCHs, one PRB can support up to D/2 transmitting terminals. With the increase of antennas, the number of transmitting terminals supported by one PRB is decreased. Therefore, the transmitting terminals borne in one PRB are limited, which leads to a low rate of resource utilization.